1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to certain new and useful improvements in vehicle locking fastener assemblies, and more particularly, to an improved vehicle locking fastener assembly having a body and decorative outer jacket secured to the body and extending therearound.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
For some period of time, automobile manufacturers were using chrome plated vehicle lug nuts for securing a vehicle wheel to a hub of the vehicle. For security purposes, many manufacturers are offering vehicle lock nuts. These lock nuts differ primarily from the lug nuts in that they do not have a side wall which can be gripped by a torque imparting tool, as do the lug nuts. Rather, the lock nuts have a top wall or a cap with a recess or groove, usually a somewhat undulating or serpentine groove, to receive a torque imparting tool.
In order to improve aesthetic appearance, manufacturers produced chrome plated lug nuts. The chrome plated lug nuts were initially popular but it was found that after being engaged by a tool, the chrome would be damaged resulting in the bare metal. The bare spots would soon rust and become unsightly. Thus, the chrome plated lug nuts which were designed to improve the aesthetic appearance of the vehicle would actually result in a degradation of the aesthetic appearance.
In order to overcome this problem and to still provide a lug nut which was more aesthetically attractive than a conventional steel lug nut, several automotive parts manufacturers have resorted to stainless steel capped lug nuts. However, the stainless steel lug nuts are more costly, both in the cost of the material and in the manufacturing processes involved to form the nuts. In recent years in the automotive industry, it has become quite fashionable to use non-steel wheels as, for example, the light-weight aluminum wheels and even magnesium wheels. Even more so, there has been an introduction of chrome-plated wheels for many vehicles, particularly in the automotive after market. It would be desirable to use either chrome-plated lug nuts or even lock nuts in connection with these wheels or, for that matter, to use chrome-plated jackets on the lug nuts or lock nuts for securing these relatively soft-metal wheels to the hub of a vehicle.
Lock nuts are highly desirable for use in securing the most expensive wheels such as the soft metal wheels including aluminum wheels, due to the high cost thereof in order to prevent theft. They are also desirable for securing steel wheels, particularly for use on vehicles parked in high-theft rate areas. The lock nuts provide a higher degree of security as indicated above, in that a special tool is required to remove the lock nut, whereas a conventional lug nut can be removed by commercially available, easily obtainable wrenches.
One of the principal problems encountered in using chrome-plated lock nuts for securing a soft metal vehicle wheel to the hub of the vehicle was the fact that the chrome would actually gall the seat of the wheel which receives the nut. This is particularly a pronounced problem when the wheel itself is also chrome-plated. This galling effect results in a marring of the surface of the wheel. As a result, there has been a need for vehicle lock nuts which are capable of locking a vehicle wheel, and particularly a soft metal vehicle wheel, on the hub of the vehicle and which are still capable of providing a decorative appearance without marring the surface of the wheel or the lock nut.
One of the principle problems in the production of lock nuts is the fact that the undulating recess of one group of lock nuts must be different from the undulating recess of another group of lock nuts. Thus, each group or series of lock nuts is provided with a type of security code defined by that particular undulating or serpentine recess. From the standpoint of the manufacturer, each series or group of lock nuts thereby required a modified tooling or die combination for forming the undulating recess.
A differently coded torque imparting tool is required for each group of lock nuts so that all lock nut purchasers and the public in general would not have direct access to remove the lock nuts and hence the ability to remove the lock nuts from vehicles of other parties. This results in a substantially increased cost of manufacture and hence cost of purchase of lock nuts. Thus, manufactures are presently forced to engage in the higher cost of manufacture by virtue of changing the patterns for different group or sets of lock nuts and to pass this increase in price onto the purchaser. This problem would be particularly pronounced if the lock nuts were chrome plated or made with stainless steel.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,806 to Chaivre discloses a capped hexagonally shaped wheel lug nut. In this case, the wheel lug nut is provided in the form of a lug nut having flats for a tool such as a wrench. The nut also has a cap fitted over the upper surface thereof although the cap does extend over a portion of the side wall on the flat to the nut. U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,829,972 dated Nov. 3, 1931 to Wiley and 1,580,186 dated Apr. 13, 1926 to Wiley both disclose capped nuts. In this case, the nuts are lug nuts or otherwise nuts for general purpose use but which are provided with flat tool-engaging side wall surfaces. The same holds true with regard to the cap nut disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 787,578, dated Apr. 18, 1905 to Lambert.
Additional capped nuts and variations thereof are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,955,234 dated May 11, 1976 to Erdmann, 1,830,787, dated Nov. 10, 1931 to Ferry, 3,971,289, dated Jul. 27, 1976 to Chaivre, and 1,632,991 dated Jun. 21, 1927 to Booth. Additional variations of nuts are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 227,596, dated May 15, 1983 to Moore and 1,381,437, dated Jun. 14, 1921 to Smith. In each of the prior art patents the nuts are all in the nature of lug nuts, in that they have flats, e.g. regularly arranged flat tool engaging surfaces on the side walls thereat.
There is presently no available or proposed lock nut device which is provided with a jacket extending around a portion of the side wall and the upper surface thereof. Moreover, there is no lock nut having a jacket which does not tend to be forced off of the nut when a tool engages the cap or the nut itself. Further, there is no commercially available lock nut which has a highly decorative appearance and which can be used for securing a soft metal wheel to the hub of a vehicle without damaging or marring either the wheel or the lock nut. There is also no commercially available lock bolt which is capable of securing a wheel to a vehicle hub and which utilizes a jacket in the manner as described in connection with lock nuts.